FCA-FAC is
organizing a weekend workshop on
Saturday October 26 with the theme “A
new Official Plan for Ottawa – Launching Community Discussion”. The
workshop is open to all (although it would be helpful if attendees could
register in advance).

There are
two objectives for the workshop. One is to stimulate discussion among community
groups about the new Official Plan project. The other is to encourage community
representatives to organize similar discussions in their respective
communities.

Following
the FCA-FAC event, an optional discussion from 1200 to 1330 about climate
action, featuring a light lunch, has been organized by Greenspace Alliance for
Canada’ Capital and by Ecology Ottawa. Detail is included in the draft agenda
document.

I wanted to thank you for your organization’s support of efforts to have the City of Ottawa enact a Low-Income Transit Pass. With a report from city staff due at City Hall in the next 10 days, we now need your help to push this important initiative over the finish line.

I’m hoping your organization can please do four things:

1) mobilize people to attend the May 9th Transit Commission meeting. That is where the staff report related to the October 2015 Inquiry (to read the inquiry see pages 4, 5 of the pdf here http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/cache/2/4ygjhawcglrzutcabiiwe5wb/656504292016115247616.pdf) from Transit Commissioners Malo and Crew will be discussed (background info on that available here: http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/oc-transpo-to-explore-low-income-fares). That staff report responding to the Inquiry should be on the City’s website by May 2nd, hopefully, as part of the Agenda for the Transit Commission’s May 9th meeting. You can look for that Agenda and the report here on May 2nd: http://app05.ottawa.ca/sirepub/agendaminutes/index_en.aspx
People attending the May 9th meeting with have the opportunity to respond to the staff report, to speak in favour of Ottawa enacting a Low-Income Transit Pass.

2) Between now and May 9th, contact your City Councillor and the Mayor and let them know you want Ottawa to enact a Low-Income Transit Pass. Let them know that you have signed this related petition, along with 1,800 individuals, and 41 organizations: http://healthytransportationcoalition.nationbuilder.com/transit_pass_petition
(the petition has 795 electronic signatures, and 1,006 people have signed the paper version of the petition, for a total of 1,800 signatures)

3) Help us collect more signatures from individuals on the petition for a Low-Income Transit Pass. Please e-mail all your friends, family, co-workers, members, and supporters the link to the petition and encourage them to sign it: http://healthytransportationcoalition.nationbuilder.com/transit_pass_petition
Post the link to the petition on your Social Media accounts, please do whatever you can to help us get to 2,000 signatures fast. It is crunch time, so please act fast. Thank you!

4) mobilize people to attend the June 15th Transit Commission meeting. This is likely when the decision will be made about whether or not Ottawa will enact a Low-Income Transit Pass. At this meeting, city staff will likely report back on their overall fare structure review (background info on that available here: http://www.metronews.ca/news/ottawa/2015/12/09/transit-fare-system-needs-major-tune-up-nussbaum-says.html).

A weekend workshop at Tom Brown Arena on the morning of Saturday April 23 to bring community representatives together to share thoughts on civic issues and to encourage community members to participate in future public engagement initiatives with the City. 160423